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Our routine Health Sub-centre¹ meeting with the community health workers at Khagaria, a district in Bihar, was all but over when Rangina Devi, an Anganwadi Worker², walked up with a request. It was not the usual demand for allocation of more free minutes on Mobile Kunji that we hear at every meeting with community health [...]

I’ve met audiences of BBC programmes in the UK and many parts of the world. But never have I met a group for whom a BBC programme inspired so much discussion as the women of the village of Vyapur in Bihar state in northern India. I was in Vyapur to join a listeners’ group to [...]

Draw up a balance sheet of Bihar. At first glance the negatives far outweigh the positives: it is one of the most populous states in India and one of the least developed. Abject poverty, illiteracy, poor infrastructure, caste-based politics and practically no governance for over four decades have cancelled out its rich history, natural reserves, [...]

How did the education system get it so wrong? Remember those multiple-choice tests where we had to pick one right answer? From the day we join school we are taught that there is always one right answer to a problem. Fortunately, life teaches us otherwise. Get married or not? One child or two? Job or [...]

Ram Lakhan frequently leaves his brothers, sisters and wife behind to work as a labourer in Mumbai. He uses his dual SIM Chinese mobile phone to talk to the folks back home: “I’ve got an Airtel SIM for Bihar and an Idea SIM for Mumbai – the Airtel network is better in Bihar, but Idea [...]